Little Cheer for Holiday Music Albums

Two years ago, it looked as if Christmas albums could help save the record business. But now the holiday genre appears to be losing its sparkle, amid a dearth of releases from giant stars.

Kelly Clarkson’s album, “Wrapped in Red,” released in October, has sold a few hundred thousand copies, but it is trailing sales of the Christmas album from the cast of reality TV’s Duck Dynasty. “Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas” has sold more than 360,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Those numbers are shy of last year’s top releases at this time, and they pale in comparison to Michael Buble’s “Christmas” in 2011, which was the second-best selling album that year, selling more than 2.5 million copies in 2011 and nearly a million copies more since then. The Canadian Mr. Buble’s holiday smash marked a fifth year of growth for the holiday genre since Josh Groban’s “Noel” became the first holiday album to become the biggest of the year, selling 3.7 million copies in 2007. The previous record had been held by Kenny G’s “Miracles: A Holiday Album” in 1994, which sold nearly 3 million copies that year.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.